Partners in life and partners in loving service to others, Holly Engelman and David Morton of Santa Monica are both Ministers in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness (MSIA). They have turned their MSIA ministries into what can only be described as a work of art and beauty of classical proportions, traveling around the world every few months or so to make the lives of the disabled workable, and filling those individual’s hearts and bodies with warmth and grace.
The two travel for Wheels for Humanity, a north Hollywood based non-profit organization which repairs and refurbishes used and sometimes discarded wheelchairs, walkers and other equipment, and distributes them to the disabled poor, wherever they might live in the world.
David has traveled to Vietnam four times, Mongolia twice, Nicaragua five or six times and Costa Rica once. Only because she started in this particular ministry a little later than David, Holly has traveled somewhat less, but to Mongolia three times and twice to Vietnam.
Holly and David pay their own expenses on these service trips, using personal funds and donations from various sources, working strictly on a volunteer basis. They each also do their own pet projects. Holly, who feels a special closeness to Mongolia, has assisted three young people to come to Los Angeles from Mongolia for corrective surgery, and she now is making arrangements for a fourth young person to come here for assistance.
David personally contributes ($600 annually, the average per capita income in Nicaragua) to help a young girl, Sonia Membreno, complete high school and get ready for college. The girl, who has no living father, thinks of David as her dad, and David certainly thinks of her as his daughter. Sonia has also traveled with David within her country helping to distribute the wheelchairs to the disabled.
What kind of people does it take to do this intensive kind of ministry?
Holly Engelman, born in Morristown, New Jersey, and raised in the eastern United States, has done everything from working in the family clothing manufacturing business in New York to herding cattle across the open range in Colorado with cowboys much tougher than she. Holly still owns a horse, keeping it stabled near Santa Monica. She has worked for years as a personal assistant for various executives, and has formerly been a staff person for John Morton and Laura Donnelley-Morton. John and his wife, Laura , founded and operate the Good Works Foundation, where Holly was employed.
David Morton (curiously, his first name is also John) was born in Lanark, Scotland, and joined Great Britain’s Royal Navy at the age of 15. After sailing the seven seas for 10 years in Her Majesty’s service, he has since been an investor in stocks and everything else you can imagine. He is also an avid tennis player.
David met David Richard, director of Wheels for Humanity, at a Spirit of Service evening, sponsored by the Heartfelt Foundation, another MSIA-related organization.
“This inspiring human being collects wheelchairs, refurbishes them with the help of volunteers, then distributes them to the disabled in third world countries, usually telling them it was a gift from God. He explained to me that without the free wheelchair these people would probably spend their lives crawling on the ground. Quite simply put, a wheelchair changes their lives for the better,” David said.
David has been involved in MSIA since 1973. MSIA and this association “has changed my life,” he said. “I am extremely grateful for all of that. If MY life ended tomorrow, I would leave with no regrets,” David continued.
Holly says she feels “exactly” the same way. Having enrolled in Peace Theological Seminary’s Masters and Doctorate of Spiritual Science programs, and the University of Santa Monica’s Masters classes, she takes advantage of everything that comes along.
“I began painting as a second-year project in USM, doing ‘non-objective color and energy’ pieces. Since then, I have sold three works,” Holly said.
Holding the Light and planting Light Columns everywhere they go, Holly and David have done much to assist the world.
In the year 2000 during a trip to Hanoi, formerly North Vietnam, Holly visited the “Hanoi Hilton,” a former prison and now a museum, where American prisoners of war were held. Needless to say, she also brought the Light there.
“We both feel so grateful to be able to do this work,” Holly and David said. “And the support we get from MSIA has also brought an undercurrent of joy. Everyone is actually supporting our projects in one way or another. And we are all working together.”
They have both just returned from a trip to Mongolia with Wheels for Humanity, and will be leaving for Pakistan and Afghanistan about mid-January. They will be distributing wheelchairs and blankets in those countries in refugee camps. MSIA’s Spiritual Director, John Morton, plans to participate with Wheels for Humanity on this trip as well, as a personal ministry.
In a moment of reflection, David thought about an incident during one of his trips to Nicaragua. After a long hot day distributing wheelchairs in the mountain town of Boaco, the teenage son of a church pastor approached David, and said: “I watched how you got down on your knees in the dirt to help even the poorest of our people. I’m now going to dedicate my life to helping them.”
